|
Getting Started
Recruit, Train, Maintain
A suggested timeline and tips for launching Synago at your church
Spring
- Start talking it up with your students, youth counselors, church staff, and parents.
- If you have a large number of youth at your church, put together a design team of youth and youth counselors (3 of each) who are exciting about Synago and will help promote and get it started.
- Make a list of potential student leaders and adult counselors for the small groups, with input from your design team. Consider adults who are not already involved in your youth ministry. Refer to the “Roles and Responsibilities” of leaders in the Synago student leader book when putting together your list.
- Invite potential student leaders and adult counselors to an orientation event. Depending on the size of your group, this could be an all-day thing or a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon or weeknight. An outline for an orientation event is included on this site, as well as a sample letter of invitation to the event.
Summer
- Offer Synago small groups for a five to six-week period, primarily for your potential leaders to participate in. These may be adult led, (by adults who are good at small group facilitation), so that students can observe what a small group leader does, learn facilitation techniques, and have first-hand experience of a Synago small group. Use sessions from the Synago book that the student-led group(s) will use when they start.
- After months of prayer for this new ministry, decide on which students you’ll ask to be leaders when you start Synago. Small group “success” is dependent on the spiritual maturity, commitment, dependability, and leadership of the student leaders. Encourage other students who want to be leaders, but were not asked to be, to participate in the groups so that they will be in a position to be new co-leaders as groups “multiply.” This direction will give you more time to assess their commitment and leadership and will also provide you with a pool of potential leaders as new groups are formed.
- Publicize Synago groups to your youth. Give them a way to indicate if they’d like to be in a group.
- A couple weeks before school starts, hold a training event for student leaders and adult counselors. A sample outline is included on this site. Use material provided in the leader books. The Synago training video is also an excellent resource. Purchase and distribute leader books to student leaders and counselors. Purchase group member notebooks; you’ll need one for each student leader and your estimated number of group members. The student leaders can hand these out at their group meetings.
- Ask student leaders for lists of whom they will invite to their small group. In addition to friends they may want to invite, give them the names of students in your youth group who want to be in a Synago group, or students YOU know who would benefit from being in a small group.
- Student leaders, along with adult counselors, determine the meeting day and time for their small groups and start inviting people to them.
School Starts
- Continue publicity and giving your youth a chance to learn about Synago groups and to sign up.
- Groups should start meeting within the first couple weeks of school.
Fall, Winter
- Hold leader meetings every four to six weeks for your student leaders and adult counselors. Encourage and affirm your leaders; invite the sharing of “Celebrations and Concerns”: What great things have been happening in the groups and what problems have you encountered? Do other leaders have suggestions for how to address these concerns?
Training Event
Opening Devotion & Prayer
Introductions
Teambuilding Activity
Review
Characteristics of Small Groups
Why Have Small Groups/ Biblical Foundations
Leader Roles & Expectations
Purpose Statement
Break
Training
Session Prep
Resources/Helps
Checklist
Session Sections
Closing Prayers
Facilitation Tips
Training Video
“Troubleshooting” Roleplay
“Multiplying”
Q & A
Next Steps
Timeline
Inviting group members
* Some items could be covered in more depth at future leader meetings.
Sample letter to potential student leader
(Early summer or late spring)
Dear (Name):
OK, I know this looks like a lot to read, but it’s very important. Please read it carefully.
You’ve been selected by some of your peers and adult leaders at church to be a part of something truly significant that we are launching next year in Youth Ministries —Synago Student-Led Small Groups. We see in you qualities of dedication, responsibility, compassion for others, a love for Christ, and a desire to grow spiritually.
We want you to attend an Orientation Retreat for prospective leaders on (date). We plan to go somewhere away from the church, leaving at 10:00 am and returning around 9:00 pm (with a restaurant stop on the way home).
At the retreat, we’ll explain in detail what a Synago small group is all about and, specifically, what the expectations and responsibilities are for group co-leaders. Briefly, these student-led small groups will begin when school starts in August and will meet weekly in the homes of the members. Leaders invite friends to be in their groups (and their friends invite friends, and so on. . .). Youth who make up the group will, ideally, be a mix of youth with strong faith commitments, those struggling with some life or faith issues, and those who have little or no faith commitment at this point in their lives. An adult counselor meets with each group, but the session is prepared and led by the student leaders. User-friendly material is provided to you, with a topic, ice breaker, questions about the topic, Bible study and application, sharing, and closing prayer. The main purpose of the groups is for youth to talk to one another, explore together how God’s Word speaks to their lives, and minister to each other with Christ’s love.
Want to know more? I hope so. Small groups are creating faith explosions among youth groups across the country. You could be a part of something that will change your life, the lives of other youth, and the impact of youth ministries at our church. Please make every effort to attend the retreat on (date) and find out if helping to lead a small group is something God is calling you to do.
To give you a taste of what it’s like to be part of a small group, you have a chance to be in one for about five or six weeks before school starts.
Please fill out and return the enclosed card —it’s already stamped—as soon as possible, so I know where you are with all this. Hope to see you June 6!
In Christ,
Keep Parents Clued In
It’s important to inform the parents of youth participating in Synago about the location, leadership, and purpose of the group. After all, many of them will be providing transportation and some will host the meetings in their homes.
Also, as group members invite friends who are not members of your youth group or church, the parents of these youth especially need to be made aware of this information, in addition to who is sponsoring this ministry.
Consider making up some preprinted postcards, like the one below, that the adult counselor can complete, address, and mail to the parents of youth who visit the group. (Get parent names and address from the visiting youth.)
Sample postcard or email
Just a note to say . . .
We enjoyed having ________________ come to our student-led small group for high school students that met ______________ (day-time) at _______________________ (location).
Our small groups, sponsored by _____________________ (name of church) youth ministries, are open to any high school student. There are two student leaders and an adult counselor for each group, and we meet weekly in group members’ homes for about 1 1/2 hours. We talk about topics relevant to teens, explore biblical texts, and share personal thoughts and experiences as a way to foster understanding and spiritual growth. Mostly, we try to become a caring and encouraging group of friends.
My name is _____________________ , and I’m the adult counselor for the group your child visited. Please call me at __________________, if you have any questions. You may also contact our youth director, _______________________, at ________________.
|
